Apple beats Wall Street expectations

Although many analysts were expecting Apple to post lackluster results, Tim Cook’s outfit managed to beat market expectations, although it did report its first profit decline since 2003.

Apple managed to ship a total of 37.4 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads last quarter. The figures were well above expectations, as some analysts were expecting iPhone shipments south of the 30 million mark. Apple reported first-quarter profit of $9.5 billion, down from $11.6 billion last year. Revenue was $43.6 billion, up from $39.2 billion a year ago. Mac sales were under 4 million units, down from 4.1 million.

Apple is still hoarding cash like a squirrel and it is currently sitting on a cash hoard of $145 billion. Although revenue is up, margins are down. It seems that quite a few consumers are opting for older iPhones and the iPad mini rather than the pricier iPhone 5 and iPad 4.

Cook used the opportunity to point out that Apple won’t have any major product launches anytime soon, but he said a slew of new products is coming this fall.